In the wake of Alfred Wallace cruise: Indonesia

22 January 2025 - 13 days from $14,350

Explore the Maluku Islands (Spice Islands) and Raja Ampat Islands as Wallace did, marvelling at their biodiversity and stunning beauty. You will cruise aboard a 22-berth luxury crewed schooner and visit several sites that were important to Wallace’s discoveries.

Alfred Russel Wallace was undoubtedly one of the greatest naturalists of all time. Not only did he jointly publish the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin in 1858, but he made many other major contributions to biology and to subjects as diverse as glaciology, astrobiology, anthropology and epidemiology. He spent eight years in the region that is now Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and the book he wrote about his journey, The Malay Archipelago; The land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise, is one of the most highly regarded scientific travelogues of the 19th century.

Search for diverse species on land, in the air and at sea including several species of birds of paradise, golden birdwing butterflies and a wealth of sea creatures. Plus you will experience local culture, primary rainforests, geology, conservation projects and relaxation of the highest order.

Accompanying the cruise are three experts. George Beccaloni, an entomologist, evolutionary biologist and Wallace expert. George helped devise this itinerary, which has the highest and most authoritative Wallace content of any Indonesian tour, and visits key places that aren’t on the itineraries of other tours. Nita Cesar and Kees Groeneboer are the cruise directors, who between them cover marine biology, ornithology, marine conservation charities, linguistics and Indonesian history. All three experts will join the daytime activities, sharing their considerable insight into the region’s history, the wildlife you will find and Wallace’s adventures.

For every guest, we will make a contribution to the Wallace Correspondence Project, which aims to locate, digitise, catalogue, transcribe, interpret and publish the surviving correspondence and other manuscripts of this important 19th-century scientist.

This cruise is limited to 22 guests. 15 guests are required for this tour to run.

Your cruise starts on the island of Sorong and finishes on the island of Ternate. Both have airports that can be reached via international flights to Jakarta. 

In partnership with Kraken Travel. 

DAY 1: ARRIVE INTO SORONG AND MEET YOUR FELLOW TRAVELLERS

After your flight arrives into the West Papuan port town of Sorong, the gateway to Raja Ampat, you will be met at the airport and transferred to the Swiss Belhotel in Sorong for one night. (We suggest you fly into the Indonesian capital Jakarta or Bali, then take a local flight to Sorong.)

Here, you will have a welcome dinner and meet entomologist, evolutionary biologist and Alfred Wallace expert George Beccaloni. Throughout the cruise, George will be giving talks covering the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, early human civilisation in Indonesia, and the varied flora, fauna and marine life that you will encounter on your journey.

DAY 2: JOIN THE OMBAK PUTIH, WEIGH ANCHOR AND VISIT THE YENBUBA FISHBOWL

In the morning, you will be transferred to your schooner, the stately Ombak Putih, a traditional Indonesian Pinisi. There will be time for you to get settled into your rooms, have a quick safety briefing, and enjoy an alfresco lunch while meeting the crew and the other accompanying experts, Nita Cesar and Kees Groeneboer.

Ready to start your adventure, you will weigh anchor, leave the harbour behind, and cruise to Yenbuba at Mansuar Island, where you can enjoy your first snorkel. This site is known as the "fishbowl" because of the chance to see so many different types of fish around the bay.

The several snorkelling opportunities on the cruise are highlights and the crew make it easy for people of all ages and abilities to take part in exploring the fascinating marine environments. Less confident swimmers can be supported with floatation devices and you will be exploring shallow sites ideal for snorkelling with abundant coral and fish. If you have access to an underwater camera, you are guaranteed to return with amazing pictures.

DAY 3: RAINFOREST EXPLORATION, WALLACE’S HUT AND FRIWIN

Today, you will rise at 4.30am, off Saporkren village. The dinghy will carry you across to the village in the dark and a local guide will take you on a short drive into the forest on a pre-dawn quest to spot the gorgeous Wilson’s bird of paradise.

We hope that the efforts of your early start will pay off, enabling you to catch a rare and privileged sight of the bird’s elaborate courtship dance as the day breaks over the forest canopy. Our guests on the 2023 cruise did. For these excursions we recommend you bring binoculars and if you are planning on photography, a tripod will prove very useful.  Each time you return to the boat after an activity, a cold towel and drink will be waiting for you.

After breakfast back on board, you will visit the Wallace Hut on Gam Island, a faithful recreation maintained by local villagers of the hut Wallace spent time in on his expedition. On the way to the hut, there will be some fascinating insects and vegetation to discover.

After a siesta, the boat will travel to Friwin island, a beautiful snorkelling spot with colourful sea fans, several tunicate species such as the gold-mouth sea squirt (Polycarpa aurata), a “local resident” starry puffer fish and occasional sightings of blacktip reef shark.

Should you wish to sleep under the stars on the upper deck, the crew will provide sleeping bags.

DAY 4: WALLACE’S CHANNEL AND MIOSKON

When you emerge from your cabins, you will be in the south-west corner of Kabui Bay next to "Wallace’s Channel", where Wallace emerged after his challenging voyage from Seram. After breakfast, you can take dinghies through the narrow channel and examine the vegetation clinging to the limestone cliffs. You will then return to the ship and head out of the bay; with luck you will see some dolphins.

The boat will then move to Mioskon Island for more snorkelling and the opportunity to watch a multitude of giant fruit bats flying overhead just after sunset, followed by a beach BBQ in a secluded spot.

DAY 5: SAWINGGARAI, THE DAMPIER STRAIT AND ARBOREK

Today, will present another opportunity for keen naturalists as you head to the village of Sawinggarai on Gam Island.  You’ll walk into the forest on a pre-dawn quest to spot the remarkable red bird of paradise, one of the species that Wallace was most anxious to collect. With a little luck and the help of the local guides, you will see this rare bird’s elaborate courtship display as dawn breaks over the forest canopy. The guides are particularly good at imitating the female birds calls to draw out the male birds. 

After returning to the boat, you will turn your attention from the sky to the sea as the Ombak Putih makes her way through the Dampier Strait, home of some of Raja Ampat’s premier reefs including the Sawandarek house reef. Here, you will see masses of healthy coral formations, sightings of big Napoleon wrasse, schools of bumphead parrotfish, and if you’re lucky you might spot an extraordinary-looking wobbegong shark in the strait’s clear and biodiverse waters.

You will end the day by mooring off the tiny Arborek Island, where local children will perform their traditional dances for you. You can also walk around the village and gain a sense of the Asai culture, which is still kept very much alive by the villagers living in this isolated place. The sea here is notable for the thermocline (layered sea temperature changes) due to the location in the Dampier Strait, and you should see rare giant clams, batfish and silversides while in the water.

DAY 6: PENEMU, KLAARBECK AND FLYING FOXES ON YAR ISLAND

You will wake up in front of the island of Penemu, a dramatic location with a short hilltop climb to take in the amazing views. After some great snorkelling on the island’s reefs, you will cruise past Klaarbeck, where Wallace landed after his difficult journey from Seram after a combination of unpredictable winds, fierce currents, difficult anchorages and lack of water sources ended with him being unable to retrieve two crewmen who were stranded to the south on the small island of Kommerrust. 

Afterwards, we hope to reach nearby Yar Island at dusk to witness thousands of flying foxes emerging and flying off to feed. 

DAY 7: EXPLORE THE MISOOL ARCHIPELAGO

This morning you will wake to see the sun rise over the picturesque chain of islands that makes up the eastern part of the Misool archipelago. The topography is typical of karst dissolution, featuring a great number of tiny islets with bases that have been eroded over time by the relentless motion of the tides.

After an early breakfast, our tenders will take you into the heart of the bay to a partially submerged cav,e where it is possible to swim, snorkel or simply float while gazing up at the cavernous grotto adorned with astonishing stalactites. 

You will then move on to a mysterious jellyfish lake and swim among the many thousands of stingless animals: undoubtedly one of Raja Ampat’s most memorable activities. After returning to the boat, you can use the schooner's small boats to explore more of this impressive maze of karst islands, both above and below the surface, complete with mysterious skull cairns in sea-cave cemeteries, and prehistoric cave paintings, estimated to be anything between 3000 to 5000 years old and depicting various human figures and huge human palms, fish, and plants, tools and vessels.

DAY 8: SEARCHING FOR THE LESSER BIRDS OF PARADISE

Today we will try our best to help you view lesser birds of paradise displaying in the wild. It is an unforgettable experience for anyone lucky enough to see them. You will rise around 4am and have a quick breakfast and go ashore at Kapatcol, where local guides will be waiting to take you through the forest to hopefully see the birds as they dance around in their "lekking" (courtship display) trees. 

You will have time for a look around the village and possibly to visit the school and to learn about the way the Nature Conservancy environmental organisation is working with the village to empower local women with a fishing practice called "sasi".

DAY 9: SOUTHERN HALMAHERA

When you wake up today, you will find yourself off the extreme southern tip of Halmahera near the islands of Djoronga and Damar, where you will go snorkelling and visit a local village before heading off later in the day for Bacan.

DAY 10: WALLACE’S GREATEST ZOOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES ON BACAN

You will wake up off the western coast of Bacan, another of Indonesia’s historic spice sultanates. You will go ashore to explore the forested slopes where Wallace made some of his greatest zoological discoveries, including a marsupial mammal known as the Moluccan cuscus, the standardwing bird of paradise, the world's largest bee (Megachile pluto), and the huge and magnificent golden birdwing butterfly. Wallace described the latter species as the "finest butterfly in the world". When he caught a male for the first time in 1859, he wrote: "When I took it out of my net, and opened its gorgeous wings, I was nearer fainting with delight and excitement than I have ever been in my life; my heart beat violently, and the blood rushed to my head, leaving a headache for the rest of the day." Very few Westerners have ever seen this species alive and few groups of tourists are taken to see them. Of course, there is no guarantee you will see it - but we will try very hard and will be employing as your guide the one person on Bacan who knows exactly where it can be found.

You should also keep a close watch for these and a host of other animals, some of them endemic to these islands: parrots, cockatoos, lorikeets, hornbills, the elusive cuscus and the endangered black macaque – the only monkey in Maluku. 

DAY 11: WEDA REEF AND RAINFOREST RESORT

You will rise early and transfer to cars in Bastiong village, Halmahera, to drive over the dividing range towards Weda Reef & Rainforest Resort. Together with the local community, the owners of the resort manage a foundation for education and conservation of the primary forest and its wildlife. They are proud to be able to protect 700 hectares of primary rainforest, home of the Wallace’s standardwing bird of paradise, plus many other species of birds and other wildlife.

You will start your walk into the forest early, so that by 6:00 you will be quietly below the trees used by males of Wallace’s standardwing for their communal courtship display. The polygamous males gather and perform a spectacular aerial show, each "parachuting" with its wings and vivid-green breast shield spread, and its feather "standards" fluttering above its back. You’ll walk back to the road to have breakfast at a shelter before heading out for a morning of bird watching (hornbills, giant cuckoos, parrots, and possibly the paradise-crow, another type of bird of paradise).

There will be a chance for a snorkel in Weda Bay before having lunch at the resort. After lunch there may just be time to explore behind the resort for Wallace's golden birdwing butterfly, before driving back to boat at Bastiong.

Nothing is compulsory and we have built in a lot of individual flexibility and relaxation into the expedition.

DAY 12: DODINGA: WHERE WALLACE MADE HIS GREATEST DISCOVERY

Today, you will wake up off the coast of Halmahera, just across from Ternate, with the mighty peaks of Ternate and Tidore as your dawn backdrop.

After breakfast, you will head to the village of Dodinga: the very place where Wallace was living when, in a fit of malarial delirium, he conceived the mechanism which drives evolutionary change - natural selection. Once he had recovered, he promptly wrote a detailed essay explaining his idea, which he posted to Charles Darwin as soon as he returned to his base on Ternate. His essay, which was published together with Darwin's thoughts on the subject in August 1858, prompted Darwin to publish his book On the Origin of Species in 1859, which explained the theory in greater detail. Dodinga is a pretty little riverside village with friendly people, colourful houses and the ruins of an old Portuguese fort, and its importance in the history of science cannot be understated.

After spending some time with the villagers, sharing some fresh coconuts and enjoying their hospitality, you will head back to the boat for lunch and then go off for an afternoon of snorkelling and relaxation. Then there will be a farewell party in the evening.

DAY 13: EXPLORE TERNATE THEN DEPART

Today marks the end of your adventure, but first you will head into the city, which has retained its commercial and political importance as the administrative and trading center of North Maluku. Of the four historically powerful spice sultanates, Ternate is the only one where the sultanate has survived uninterrupted. You will visit Fort Toluko built by the Portuguese and the "Kedaton", the palace of the sultan, with its rich collection of heirlooms.

You will also see the impressive Fort Oranje built by the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and the probable site of the house where Wallace lived when he posted his essay on natural selection to Charles Darwin in 1858. After your tour, you will travel back to the boat and say goodbye to the crew and your sea-based home, Ombak Putih, before we transfer you to the airport for your onward journey.